strangers on board
by Liska Kiki
Summary: set a year after serenity, crew takes on passengers and river takes a liking to one, jayne doesn't react well, to say the least. Rayne is later chapters
1. Chapter 1

She was sitting there again, in the kitchen on the bench top which I am trying to use to make some protein more edible, just staring into nothin', or everything, hard to tell. Ebony curls twitching as she looks at me with those all-knowing eyes

_"The girl doesn't know everything, just more than imaginable by you, overgrown ape-man" _she says with a smirk just as Mal stalks across into the kitchen and begins to pace, I'm about to ask him if he could make the 'little crazy person' leave him be when craziness herself leans over and whispers

_"Does not advise irritating Captain Daddy, he's busy with other though process, man with a girl's name, high risk of being thrown out the airlock"_ and gives a curt nod. He hated to admit it but since Miranda he'd been listening to River and taking her advice under, well, advisement. Picking up on his 'though process' she gives his a small smile and just looks at him for a couple moments like she was trying to remember something important

_"Captain Daddy, go to bed, all problems can be fixed when the morning cycle begins_" she can see he's about to complain, Mal was always goin' on bout people givin' orders on his ship, like he ever really did own Serenity, so she interjects _"don't want to be over-tired do we, little badgers can smell fear, did you know that, Captain. Must be ready for Persephone, picking up more aimless nomads, more mouths to feed, and you gotta keep you resident Crazy in her place, flyin' the ship" _she scrunches up her face _"must check up on her, she seems restless" _she states this clearly and then flounces out in the general direction of the bridge.

_"Well that was weird" _I add simply after a few minutes of silence

_"I think I'll be goin' off to bed now"_ the captain says with a shrug and leaves him alone in the kitchen, his protein had been forgotten the moment she had opened her mouth, he found himself no longer hungry and decides that seein' as he wasn't in need of food, or what people on this boat called food, he would just go to bed too. He needed to look as menacing as ever with Badger ever since the Miranda broad-wave, the little weasel had decided that Mal had done him a disservice by showing the world the truth about the alliance, not that it had done much. People had been shocked for all of 2 minutes 'fore the alliance had come up with some sad excuse that all them core folk had eaten up, even though they knew the alliance was lying' through their teeth, all they cared bout was status, but what did Mal think would happen, the worlds just don't want to change


	2. Chapter 2

Just to be clear, Wash's spirit is kind of haunting the ship, she can only hear him and no-one else knows about him.

Serenity was feeling restless, she could feel it. She leaves the menfolk to their Neanderthal-ness and walks her shadowed halls and finally make it to her destination, the bridge.

"Wash, what seems to be the problem, Serenity seems unbalanced" she says to the former pilot

"She does, doesn't she. Ask Kaylee to check the compression coil, or better yet, check the whole engine" says the enigmatic little man, in his quirky voice that only she can hear, incredibly perky for a dead man. At least he gets to watch his warrior woman raise their child, little Mathew Hoban Washburn born seven months after Miranda, and he was a week late. Odd mix of mocha skin, strawberry blond hair and incredible blue eyes, just like his fathers but with that consistently stoic look just like his mothers, five months old and still probably more mature than Mal, then again, who isn't.

"Does she have to, Kaylee and my brother…" she stutters, almost choking

"Can wait, they can't be sexin' if there dead, and then Simon will never know his unborn children" he replies

"She believes there is an obligation to future niece and nephew growing in our mechanics stomach" she answer grudgingly

"Yes you do, now to work, get Kaylee to check up Serenity's engine, kay, or are you gonna rub soup in your hair" she give the place he would be sitting on the bridge the look, the I can kill you with my brain look, she can hear his sigh seep through Serenity's metal walls.

She knows that she needs to interrupt Kaylee and he brother but it was just so gross. She walks down the hallway that houses the crew bunks, she really doesn't want to interrupt them, waves of lust from the bunk that has Kaylee written across the door was knocking her down, she must have bashed into Jayne's door in her trying to get away from the almost crushing lust because he had opened his latch and was staring at her. She grabs his arm and pulls him between her and Kaylee's bunk, her breath shallow, sweat on her brow

"What's wrong, girl" he says in his gruff voice

"Need to get Kaylee to check engine, she's with her brother and, uh…" he turns abruptly and kicks Kaylee's door half a dozen times while yelling

"Kaylee, get yr _pi gu_ up hear, Crazy needs you"

"_Qing-wa cao de-liu mang_, what is your problem, I'm busy" says a very flustered, hardly clothed Kaylee

"Don't get yr panties in a twist, River need you for whatever reason and couldn't get near enough to nock coz yr sexin's makin her dizzy" she looks shocked for a few second before Kaylee grabs her in a tight hug

"I'm so sorry River, I didn't know you needed me, I'm sorry I was makin you sick, baby, please forgive me" she is shocked for a few seconds, but soon recognises this as normal Kaylee behaviour and decides to answer

"You're forgiven, Sister-in-law of mine. I need you to check the compression coil and if nothing's wrong, check everything else" Kaylee looks confused for a moment

"What's wrong River?" she asks with concern

"Serenity's restless, she want to make sure she's okay, she have recently been reminded of the obligation to you and yours she has, and her need to keep you safe is phenomenal, please help her nerves and check" she asks with solemn eyes bearing into the whiskey eyes of her sister

"Okay River, if only for yr nerves, can't have a restless pilot" she says simply and goes down into her bunk, returning in a few minutes clothed in her patented mechanics overalls and pink skivvy showing underneath and says "I'll be gettin to work ,I'll check 'er top to bottom" she says seriously and disappears down the hallway heading towards the engine room

"Thanks Jayne, you helped her and one day she will return the favour" she says, completely calm even with the odd emotions coming from Jayne that he wasn't even trying to control

"Need me again and I'll be in my bunk" he says, his usual goodbye

"Rest well, wolf" she says as he disappears down into his bunk "you're going to need it" she adds when he can't hear her anymore.


	3. Chapter 3

Despite Rivers bitchin' they landed on Persephone without a problem, except that we had to meet with Badger, but he was consistently a problem. I try to be friendly, it's my mercenary's job to be menacing, my reader and pilot package's job to be creepy and my first mates job to be stoic.

"Mornin' Badger, how's yr world" I say in only a slightly sarcastic tone

"Let's quit the friendliness and start talkin' business, don't ya think Mal" say the irritating man with the cockney accent

"Kay, heard word you had some clients looking for safe passage to Boros and we think we can help"

"40% finder's fee" he says

"20%" I reply

"35%" he retorts

"30%" I reply

"32%" he snarls

"Deal, at 32% finder's fee, nice doing business with you"

We shake hand and me and my crew leave with Badgers clients, a guy about 20 and a girl about 14 claiming to be brother and sister and a woman in her late 20s to early 30s with startling blue eyes. Kaylee, as always wants to know everyone's names and there life story's so I leave them in her charge while I check up on the rest of my crew.

(Line break)

River liked the passengers, her favourites were the siblings, Celia and Alec, secrets cloud their minds. Some things Celia didn't know, like why they left, secrets to her but he knows why.

Celia knows that Alec wasn't always Alec, it was changed, to make it harder to find them, he had made them fugitives but she didn't really know why. River knew why, assaulted their father, left to bleed to death in an alley, but he had survived 'went crazy, my son did, and he kidnapped my sweet daughter', what wasn't added was that he was going to hurt Celia, in the worst way and he had stopped him. Celia never knew, he would never tell her, she didn't need to know why there father was dead, she needed a good father figure and he was going to let her have it, even if it killed him to hear his baby sister talk about their father like he was some 'gorram hero'.

River liked Alex, he was like a rimified version of Simon, she liked that he would put a bullet to anyone who would hurt his sister and she liked that he would do it without mercy.


End file.
